The Talens' Tales

I love my people and they did a great job showing their love to me on Sunday.  Breakfast in bed. I forgot to take a picture until I was mostly finished with my cereal. Gifts that were made in school and my requests of a new cookbook and mesh produce bags. And Mataya also did a little questionnaire and drew a picture of me at school. It is pretty fantastic!

A few things worth noting have happened lately. First, Mataya got a hair cut and she loves it!  It is still long enough for pony tails and braids, but it is much more manageable and less tangley which make us both happy! Second, it was Storybook Character day this week at school. We went the Robert Munsch route this year, which was nice a simple. Joash made a cookie of play dough and was Christopher from Mmm...Cookies!  And Mataya rocked the side pony tail as Stephanie from Stephanie's Ponytail . We did some pumpkin carving. Mataya was going for silly and Joash was going for frightening! And finally, I headed back to the classroom and started teaching again last week. I am teaching the 9/10 English class at ICS. I teach three class periods a week, last period of the day on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I asked to teach in the afternoon because then Gideon can stay with Wilbert and we don't have to worry about who is taking care of him. It has been g...

School has started once again. Joash began yesterday in Grade 3.  Mataya started Kindergarten today. She was VERY excited. She was all ready to go to school by 7:15 am this morning. Those last 45 minutes before we had to leave for school were a very long time to wait.  And Gideon wanted his picture taken with a backpack on as well. He get to have all the attention to himself now while brother and sister are at school.

Some random photos of life lately.  Mataya's preschool had an end of the year party and she got a pretty rainbow on her face.  The rhubarb plant in the garden is doing quite well this year. Mataya used this leaf as an umbrella...  And she could also use it as a shirt.  Gideon and I went to a park one day while the others were in school. He was fond of the tunnel.  The older two had fun with clothespins at Oma's house the other day. Summer is here on the Island and we are loving it!

Wilbert got some lovely and thoughtful things for Father's Day this year. Mataya went all out making things at school and a card at home.  She filled out this questionnaire about Wilbert as well. She knows him pretty well.  And Joash made this cool card at school. He was especially proud of the pocket and the $5 bill he made that fit in the pocket.

It is that time of year again for school spirit days. Mataya had crazy hair day on Tuesday. We went for the braided look. Today was Flannel Friday at Joash's school. I really had to document this day because I convinced Joash to wear jeans to school!

It is Storybook Character Day time again. Joash had his last week and Mataya had hers today.  Joash, since he is really into Egypt really wanted to be a pharaoh. I managed to find a headdress at Value Village. We made the beard and the scepter things they used. Joash is trying to look very serious in this picture. Mataya wanted to be a bunny, so we found a storybook on our shelf with a bunny in it. I found the ears at Value Village, too and we made the tail that we taped to her shirt. And she found a nice carrot from our garden. The kids each had a fun day!

For some reason over the summer, ancient Egypt grabbed Joash's attention and interest. I am pretty sure he has had every book in the Jr. Non-fiction section out of the library (though he finds photographs of real mummies creepy.) He was super excited because his class is studying ancient Egypt as well. And he is currently building a coffin with a non-creepy mummy out of lego. Copying hieroglyphics. He has also written his name in hieroglyphics.  It is so fun to see his whole imagination get caught up in something. I am interested to see where it turns to next.

Being stuck in Detroit meant that Joash missed the first two days of school. But last Thursday he finally made it to the first day of grade 2.  He was not super excited about having his picture taken for the first day of school. "Why do you need to take another picture of me, Mom? You have enough pictures of me already." He had a good first day, but I think it was a bit overwhelming coming in a bit behind everyone. It was nice for him to have two days and then a break. This week has been going much better.  And Mataya had her first day of preschool on Tuesday. She was super excited and didn't mind having her picture taken at all. She was so excited to go to school. And she had a great first day. She didn't mind at all when I left and it was so fun to see her playing with her friends from church and having fun.

We are two days into Summer Vacation and things have been great so far. The weather has been lovely, though it could rain today. But we have been outside and it certainly feels like summer (though a bit windy to hit the beach, yet.) We are also trying a little more structured chore chart thing this summer for some extra motivation and to give some structure to our day. The kids have things they need to every day and a job that will change each week. I wanted to do a little bit of  "brain time" each day, so Joash has a math sheet and reads independently for 15 minutes each day. Mataya didn't want to be left out, so we found a little alphabet workbook for her to do. It is so fun to see them using their brains.  It makes this book lovers heart glad to see her oldest starting to love to read. He really, really likes to read non-fiction, especially about history and animals.

Love my little people who made me a mother.  And I love the wonderful homemade Mother's Day gifts from school. I hope all of you had a wonderful Mother's Day as well!

Today was Storybook Character Day at Joash's school. I tried to make it easy on myself and encouraged Joash to use one of the costumes we have on hand. So, he picked the chef costume and took the book Sam the Chef .  Notice anything about his face? I didn't have time to take a picture before school and we got a call right around lunch time that Joash had a pretty bad fall on the asphalt at school during recess. He was pretty shook up about, so I went to pick him up early today. He seems pretty much his normal self now, so we are not too worried. And of course, school pictures are on the 31st, so we will have to see how well he has healed by then.

Monday was Canadian Thanksgiving. It always seems a little weird to me mainly because it is on a Monday and there is no church service. And, since it is in October, we never know where we will be in harvest, so we can't plan too much. We had a nice meal with Wilbert's parents on Sunday. Monday we went got to experience the leftovers of Hurricane Matthew, so it was an indoor day for us. Here are a few things from the weekend. Joash really wanted to make a jack-o-lanturn, so we made a small one with a pumpkin from our garden.  Since no one wanted to go outside on Monday due the wind and rain, and that Joash can read now, I made a little scavenger hunt for him and Mataya.  The kids all have fun playing in the blankets and cushions.  Joash wrote this lovely list of things he is thankful for at school. We just love the grade 1 spelling and I love that "Mom" made the list. We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

It is the first day of school today. Joash is in grade 1 and today his excitement seemed to bubble over. Which made this mama's heart happy.  His other siblings were a little sad to see him go. Mataya declared today that she is very excited to go to school. Hopefully that excitement lasts for the entire next year, since she doesn't get to go to school until then. We had a just a half day to start, which is nice to ease into the school year. When I picked him up, the first thing he said was, "I got used to grade 1 pretty quick. I get my own desk this year and my own hook!" I am so thankful for a good start to the year and for the fantastic school that we can send Joash too.

It is hard to believe it, but we have a Kindergarten graduate in the house. Just one more 1/2 day of school and summer is upon us. We are all excited for that, especially since Grandpa and Grandma arrive from Michigan tomorrow afternoon. Joash's class had a very nice closing program for their graduation and it reminded me of so many of the things I love about Immanuel Christian School. Here are a few: Joash and all of his classmates singing songs of praise to God with lots of enthusiasm. Joash's whole class pray together The grade 8/9 class came to watch the program as well. What a neat community. Mr. Mann, the principle, sitting on a kid size chair so he could speak directly to the kindergarten class. We are so thankful for this school and all of the people who are part of it. We are already looking forward to the fall and what Grade 1 will bring.

It was another dress up day at Joash's school last week. Each class had a different theme and Joash's class was Noah's Ark. His teacher dressed up as Noah and all the kids were different animals. Joash really wanted to be a cow, so this is what we came up with. These dress up days are fun, but they certainly test my creativity a bit. Joash likes to help make them, so it usually works out to be a fun little project.

Joash has been doing many things lately that have been proving how much he is growing up. He loves going to school and learning. He really likes the idea that he is learning to read. Last week his class had a sound party because they have learned all of the their phonics sounds. They made some really cool party hats!  Yesterday Mataya and I went on a field trip with his class to have a sleigh ride. We actually do not have very much snow on the ground, so it was a horse pulled wagon ride instead, which was still really nice. They also had a small petting farm, had hot chocolate and cupcakes for everyone, a fire pit area where we could roast marshmallows. It was fun to watch how Joash interacted with his classmates. It has also been such a joy lately to see how Joash interacts with his sister. The majority of the time they get along quite well. And what I really love to see is how he cares for Mataya. Being pregnant this year, I haven't really been as able to play with the...

We are getting back to the normal things around here after the holidays. While there is not too much snow on the ground right now (though more is coming tomorrow), the kids have been enjoying playing in the snow. The Christmas tree makes a great car.  Joash was very eager to get back to school after having been away from school for a few weeks. Here is a picture of a cow he drew on his first day back.  His teachers also asked him to draw a pictures of something God will help him do this year. Here is what he drew and what he tried to write was "me reading," meaning God will help him to learn how to read. And Mataya has had a few interesting morning awakenings lately. This morning when I got her up, I realized she had a bloody nose during the night. That is a scary thing to see, but thankfully it must have just happened, so it was well contained to one area and washed out of her sheets very easily. Another morning a few weeks back, I thought the same thing had ha...